Are USDA reports still news to changing crop markets?

This study investigates whether major USDA reports still provide important news to changing crop markets. The news component of each report, or market “surprise,” is measured as a difference between the USDA estimate and its private expectation in corn, soybeans, and wheat markets. Changes in the relevance of USDA information are assessed by examining changes in the magnitude of market surprises and shifts in the futures price reaction to these surprises, which isolates the impact of each report. The stable size of market surprises over time suggests that competition from alternative data sources has not reduced the news component of USDA crop reports. Increasing price reaction to most reports, including those facing competition from alternative information sources, suggests that value of public information may be enhanced in uncertain markets affected by structural changes.     

The effect of external audits of internal control over financial reporting on financial reporting for clients of Big 4, Second-tier,and small audit firms

The external audit of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) is a very expensive and contentious aspect of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX). Larger public firms were first required to file a management report on and have an external audit of ICFR in 2004. Smaller public firms were first required to file a management report on ICFR in 2007 but are exempt from the audit requirement. Whereas most related prior research investigates the combined effect of management and auditor reports on financial reporting, this study examines the distinct effect of auditor reports on reporting quality. For companies audited by small auditors, we find evidence that financial reporting quality improves with an auditor report on ICFR. We find no evidence that auditor ICFR reports improve reporting quality for clients of Big 4 or Second-tier audit firms. Our study adds to the debate on the applicability of SOX Section 404 to smaller firms.     

Hot Money and Quantitative Easing: The Spillover Effects of U.S. Monetary Policy on the Chinese Economy

We develop a factor‐augmented vector autoregression (FA‐VAR) model to estimate the effects that unanticipated changes in U.S. monetary policy and economic policy uncertainty have on the Chinese housing, equity, and loan markets. We find the decline in the U.S. policy rate since the Great Recession has led to a significant increase in Chinese housing investment. One possible reason for this effect is the substantial increase in the inflow of “hot money” into China. The responses of Chinese variables to U.S. shocks at the zero lower bound are different from those responses in normal times.     

Agriculture and aggregate productivity: A quantitative cross-country analysis

A decomposition of aggregate labor productivity based on internationally comparable data reveals that a high share of employment and low labor productivity in agriculture are mainly responsible for low aggregate productivity in poor countries. Using a two-sector general-equilibrium model, we show that differences in economy-wide productivity, barriers to modern intermediate inputs in agriculture, and barriers in the labor market generate large cross-country differences in the share of employment and labor productivity in agriculture. The model implies a factor difference of 10.8 in aggregate labor productivity between the richest and the poorest 5% of the countries in the world, leaving the unexplained factor at 3.2. Overall, this two-sector framework performs much better than a single-sector growth model in explaining observed differences in international productivity.     

Nominal exchange rate volatility,relative price volatility,and the real exchange rate

We model real exchange rate, nominal exchange rate, and relative price volatility using real and nominal factors. We analyze these volatility measures across developing and industrialized countries. We find that the inclusion of nominal factors achieves a sizable reduction in the real exchange rate volatility spread between developing and industrialized countries. In addition, we find that nominal factors matter to real exchange rate volatility in the short run and the long run, and that for developing countries, a higher share of real exchange rate volatility stems from relative price volatility.     

2012年国家财政性教育经费支出占GDP4%的目标如何实现

温家宝总理在2010年全国教育工作会议上,阐述了中央制定《教育规划纲要》的主要考虑和确定的教育工作方针,他特别强调《教育规划纲要》提出到2012年实现教育财政性支出占GDP4%的目标。2012年国家财政性教育经费支出达到占GDP4%的时间表,意味着党和政府推动教育改革和发展的坚定决心;意味着教育经费投入总量将有一个大的增加,落实科教兴国战略、建设人力资源强国有了重要经济保障。然而,从历史经验看,它也意味着实现这个目标是一个艰巨的任务,我们还面临着许多要解决的新难题。     

辩证视角下的西方营销理论嬗变

本文从辩证的角度对西方营销理念的演变进行探讨,系统回顾、分析了麦卡锡提出的以企业产品为核心的市场营销4 P s理论、劳特朋(Lauteborn)提出的以顾客为核心的4Cs理论框架以及舒尔茨(Don Schultz)提出的以企业与利益相关者关系为核心的4Rs的理论,并对这三种理论的辩证关系进行了探讨.     

第四方物流运行环境初探

4PL是一个供应链的集成,通过整合社会资源,解决物流信息充分共享、社会物流资源充分利用的问题.4PL的运行需要相应的经济、政策法律、风险规避制度、技术、管理人员和制度等宏观环境和微观环境支持,才能保证第四方物流的实现条件和风险规避。